New York State Teachers Retirement System Reduces Stock Position in Hancock Whitney Corporation $HWC

New York State Teachers Retirement System cut its stake in Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ:HWC) by 24.4% in the first quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 107,766 shares of the company’s stock after selling 34,690 shares during the quarter. New York State Teachers Retirement System owned 0.13% of Hancock Whitney worth $6,853,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in HWC. Torren Management LLC bought a new position in shares of Hancock Whitney during the 4th quarter valued at $32,000. Hilton Head Capital Partners LLC purchased a new position in Hancock Whitney during the fourth quarter valued at $35,000. Root Financial Partners LLC grew its holdings in Hancock Whitney by 70.9% during the first quarter. Root Financial Partners LLC now owns 612 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 254 shares during the period. IFP Advisors Inc grew its holdings in Hancock Whitney by 67.6% during the third quarter. IFP Advisors Inc now owns 627 shares of the company’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 253 shares during the period. Finally, Eurizon Capital SGR S.p.A. purchased a new stake in Hancock Whitney in the fourth quarter worth about $40,000. 81.22% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on HWC shares. Benchmark initiated coverage on shares of Hancock Whitney in a research note on Wednesday, June 24th. They issued a “buy” rating and a $84.00 price objective for the company. Piper Sandler upped their price objective on Hancock Whitney from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Monday, May 18th. Citigroup increased their target price on Hancock Whitney from $81.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, June 25th. Barclays reissued an “overweight” rating and issued a $80.00 target price on shares of Hancock Whitney in a report on Tuesday. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of Hancock Whitney from a “buy (b)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Monday, May 11th. Three investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and three have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $79.75.

Hancock Whitney Trading Up 0.2%

Shares of HWC stock traded up $0.19 on Tuesday, reaching $75.24. 154,303 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 882,288. Hancock Whitney Corporation has a 52 week low of $54.05 and a 52 week high of $76.39. The company has a current ratio of 0.81, a quick ratio of 0.81 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $6.11 billion, a PE ratio of 15.46 and a beta of 0.95. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $69.43 and its 200 day simple moving average is $67.71.

Hancock Whitney (NASDAQ:HWC) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, April 21st. The company reported $1.52 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.04. Hancock Whitney had a return on equity of 11.20% and a net margin of 21.34%.The company had revenue of $393.64 million for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $400.01 million. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.38 EPS. Hancock Whitney’s quarterly revenue was down 19.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast that Hancock Whitney Corporation will post 6.47 EPS for the current year.

Hancock Whitney Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Monday, June 15th. Stockholders of record on Friday, June 5th were paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, June 5th. Hancock Whitney’s payout ratio is currently 41.07%.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Christine L. Pickering sold 417 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, May 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.16, for a total value of $28,005.72. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 25,066 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,683,432.56. This represents a 1.64% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.92% of the company’s stock.

Hancock Whitney Profile

Hancock Whitney Corporation (NASDAQ: HWC) is a regional financial services company headquartered in Gulfport, Mississippi. The firm was established in April 2019 through the merger of Hancock Holding Company and Whitney Holding Corporation, each of which traced its roots to the late 19th century. This combination created one of the largest bank holding companies in the Gulf South region, with a network of branches serving both urban and rural communities.

The company’s core business activities include commercial banking, retail banking and wealth management services.